Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 05/27/2008
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: BBC Warner
As is well-known and frequently discussed, the gothically-inclined English woman of letters
Daphne Du Maurier (
Don't Look Now,
Rebecca) also happened to be a lesbian, but virulently suppressed these inclinations given her beloved father's abhorrence to homosexual behavior - attitudes that
Du Maurier imbibed and that gave her lifelong pangs of guilt and self-denial. She experienced two life-altering homosexual loves, however: an irreciprocal one for heterosexual
Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her publisher
Nelson Doubleday, and another for bisexual actress
Gertrude Lawrence (
Private Lives), which
Lawrence purportedly helped her consummate. As created for
Du Maurier's centenary,
Claire Beavan's
BBC production
Daphne dramatizes the connection between these two relationships;
Beavan pulls from private letters and memoirs to depict the series of events by which
Du Maurier (here played by
Geraldine Somerville) fell into an impassioned love for
Doubleday (
Elizabeth McGovern), and how the unrequited nature of that love spurred her on to author a play about forbidden romantic longings,
September Tide - a play that, ironically, introduced her to the second great love of her life,
Lawrence (
Janet McTeer). In so doing, the film not only resurrects a long-buried and hidden part of
Du Maurier's life, but explores the connection between life experiences and highly personalized artistic expression.
~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide